


The Two Battles of Mag Tuired

by SureenInk



Series: Legends of Aleithia [1]
Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29170155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SureenInk/pseuds/SureenInk
Summary: On the world of Versumi, there are legends of the land known as the Spirit Isle. This is one of them, the story of how the island got its name and of how two battles rang out throughout history. These are the two Battles of Mag Tuired.
Series: Legends of Aleithia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141409
Kudos: 1





	The Two Battles of Mag Tuired

Long ago, in the First Age, there was a powerful nation. They ruled from an island we now know as the Spirit Isle. These people were known as Muintir Partholon, or "People of Partholon" as they were the descendants of the god Partholon.

The Partholon were said to be in control of powerful magic and even technology unlike our world had ever seen. But the gods looked down upon the Partholon and saw that how they lived was corrupt.

And so, the gods cursed the Muintir Partholon with a terrible plague. It began in the crops that the Partholon grew and spread throughout the people of the island within only a week's time. Soon, the entire land would be left dead and barren with no food to eat and no clean water to drink.

The Muintir Partholon began to die from the plague. However, a few sought to escape the plague, namely Nemed and his children. They fled the island, but Nemed died from the plague not long after they left. Without father or leader, the children of Nemed split apart and went their own ways to escape the plague.

And so, our story would come to an end, if our story only covered the time of the First Age. For indeed, our story tells more than just the lives of the Partholon.

At the starting of the Age of Magic, almost a thousand years after Nemed and his children fled, the descendants of Nemed began to return to the island.

The first of these descendants had come to be known as the Fir Bolgs, or "Men of Bags". They had this name as after fleeing from the isle, they came upon the people of Kerxek and were forced into slavery.

When the Great Cataclysm struck our world at the end of the First Age and shattered Jinosa, Kerxek sank beneath the ocean. The Fir Bolgs escaped from the city and were now free from their oppressors. They sailed for what seemed an eternity before finally landing upon the land of their forefathers.

However, the Fir Bolgs discovered the land as tainted and desolate as their forefathers had left it. While the plague itself was gone, the land was still barren and would not produce food. So, the Fir Bolgs journey back to Jinosa and took up bags of soil then journeyed back to the island.

Planting this soil upon the ground caused the land to again spring forth with life. The Fir Bolgs spent years journeying back to Jinosa, taking soil, and returning to the island. Six or even seven generations are said to have passed before they had replaced all of the soil on the island and it once again became prosperous as their forefathers had had.

Now, it is in this time that Eochaid mac Eirc became the leader of the Fir Bolgs. He ruled over them benevolently in his first few years. However, he would soon find himself forced to choose between the lives of his people and his land.

For it was, in his reign, that another of the descendants of Nemed arrived at the island. They were known as the Tuatha de Danann, or People of Danu. They were lead by their king, Nuadha, and when they arrived, they burned their ships.

When the Tuatha de found the Fir Bolgs on the island, they demanded the Fir Bolgs give up half of the island to them, believing they were the rightful rulers of the land. The Fir Bolgs refused, and so the two races began to fight amongst each other.

It was Sreng that the Fir Bolgs chose as their champion, while the Tuatha de chose their champion to be Bres. The two sides fought until they came to the land of Balgatan. It was here that the greatest battle of the war, known as the Battle of Mag Tuired, would occur.

As the two sides fought, Sreng and Nuadha met in battle. The two fought with all their might, but Sreng got the upper hand. With a swing of his axe, Sreng cut off Nuadha's right arm. The Tuatha quickly called a truce as they saw to their king's wound.

After a time, Nuadha commanded the Fir Bolgs. They were to either leave the island, give up half the land they still owned, or die. Eochaid mac Eirc would not relinquish the lands he had left. Sreng determined to end the war by demanding Nuadha fight him in single combat.

Nuadha would agree to this, but only if Sreng would tie up one of his arms so as to make the fight fair. Sreng would refuse.

It was then that Bres stepped forward. He offered to give the Fir Bolgs the lands they still retained if they would stop the war. The Fir Bolgs reluctantly agreed to this truce, and so the lands became divided between them.

And so it was, the Tuatha de Danann got the lands that became known as Connacht while the Fir Bolgs got the lands that became known as Ailech.

The Tuatha de Danann, under the command of the goddess Brigid, forced Nuadha to step down as their king and replaced him with Bres. For Brigid declared that no man with a blemish could rule over the Tuatha de Danann. As for Eochaid mac Eirc, he wandered away from Balgatan at the end of the Battle of Mag Tuired and was never seen again.

According to legends, the goddess Morrighan found Eochaid mac Eirc dying of thirst and saved him from death by lifting his spirit away. Other legends say that the Tuatha de Danann, after being forced to replace their king, stole Eochaid mac Eirc away to force the Fir Bolgs to replace their king as well.

Regardless of which legend is true or if they are both false, the Fir Bolgs raised Sreng up to become their new king. And so it was, Sreng ruled over the Fig Bolgs from that day forth.

And so, there was peace for many years on the island. Cities and kingdoms were built and the relations between the Tuatha de and the Fir Bolgs remained peaceful, though strained.

But a god did not wish for this peace. He believed his people should rule over the island. And so it was, the god of the Fomorians, Cichol, opened a great chasm in Balgatan. The fomorians charged out from the chasm and began to lay siege to the island.

When it became clear that the fomorians would attack both sides without care, Sreng turned to Bres to create an alliance. However, Bres revealed that this was all done according to the will of his god and that he himself was half fomorian.

It was in this moment that Nuadha again appeared. His arm had now been replaced with one of silver. He slew Bres and united with Sreng against the fomorians. No longer blemished, Nuadha became the king of the Tuatha de once more, now taking on the name Nuadha Airgetlám, or Nuadha of the Silver Hand.

And so they began to fight against the fomorians, but for every fomorian they killed five more took their place. The war seemed impossible to win, but it was then that the goddess Morrighan bestowed the milesans, or Children of the Stars, upon the armies.

Powerful, undying, fearless, the milesans appeared and began to fight alongside the armies of the Tuatha de Danann and the Fir Bolgs. The fomorians were at last being pushed back. Soon, they had pressed them back to the chasm in Balgatan.

And so came the battle known as the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. For as the fomorians were in their most desperate moment, they summoned a horrible beast, the Glas Gaibhnenn. With four arms, a breath of plague, the ability to breath out flame from its mouth, and two swords that could cleave an army in half, the armies of the the Tuatha de and Fir Bolgs thought they had met their end.

But the milesans continued to fight without fear. Even as the Glas Gaibhnenn tore through the armies of the milesans, they stood strong against it and fought with all of their might. Finally, a milesan by the name of Breogan climbed upon the Glas Gaibhnenn's head and drove his sword into the creature's skull down to the hilt.

The Glas Gaibhnenn collapsed, killed by the power of the milesans, and the armies of the Fir Bolgs and Tuatha de believed they now would win the fight. But, that belief was soon to be swallowed up.

Balor of the Evil Eye, the king of the Fomorians, stepped onto the battlefield. Standing taller than even the Glas Gaibhnenn, he wrecked havoc on the armies that fought against him. He seemed indestructible, unstoppable, and the longer the battle continued, the worse the land became.

First, the bracken began to wither, then the grass became copper-colored. Soon the woods and timbers began to heat, then smoke came from the trees. The land began to come hot and red and soon began to spark. And then, as Balor tore the blinder from his third eye, everything was engulfed in flame.

And so it was, the nature of Balor's name came to be known. His third, central eye, his "Evil Eye" burned everything around him and brought the land and armies to ruin. The armies of the Tuatha de and the Fir Bolgs could not stand up against such might.

And then, a light shined from atop the land. A man dressed in the silver glow of his armor appeared. It was Lugh Lavada, the first Knight of Light. Wielding the legendary spear Brionac, he entered the battle and thrust his spear into Balor's Evil Eye. He tore the eye from Balor's head and used its power to destroy the armies of the fomorians.

The fomorians and Balor fled deep into the kingdom of Tara. They surely would have been defeated if the spirits of those who died - Tuatha de, Fir Bolg, and Fomorian alike - had not then risen up. They forced the three armies to stop their fighting.

And so it was, the Spirit Pact was made. The Fomorians were given the land of Tara that now is known as the Kingdom of Ulaid. The Fir Bolgs returned to their land of Ailech and the Tuatha de returned to Connacht. There the three would rule separately.

Still, not all was lost in the fighting. While the land of Balgatan had now become a charred wasteland between the three borders, the kingdoms of Connacht and Ailech began to grow together. Their relations were no longer strained and they even shared peaceful trade.

And that is the story of the land known as the Spirit Isle. There are many more legends about it, but none that I will cover here. For now, it is important for you to know the history of the Spirit Isle and of the two Battles of Mag Tuired.


End file.
